Wednesday
16th Jan 2019
The Kosovan deputy PM calls on Nato members to follow the US in supporting the enlargement of the Kosovo Securitiy Force. "Kosovo owes it to both its own people and the international community to take this step", Behgjet Pacolli says.
Two million people in Macedonia will be hoping to become EU citizens in 2025 as leaders give nod to start talks.
The new blend of religious nationalism will be more anti-West and anti-EU, as Brussels has anything but leverage on Turkey. The first signs of this strong rhetoric are already visible.
Macedonian PM Zoran Zaev has said a "breakthrough" on the name dispute is imminent, as he prepares to speak to his Greek counterpart on Friday.
Accession talks to start in 2019, not this year as hoped, after France, Denmark and Netherlands force delay despite breakthrough on Macedonia name dispute.
Police fired tear gas against protesters in Greece and Macedonia over the weekend, as diplomats signed a name deal to unlock EU enlargement.
Orban's Hungary will edge closer to Russia and cause discord within its Western alliances if it gets away with harbouring a convicted ex-PM.
After the fleeing of ex-PM Nikola Gruevski to Hungary, what Macedonia needs is an independent judiciary so that wrongdoers from all parties are brought behind bars, and a reconciliation between Albanians and Macedonians, based on full equality between communities.
EU foreign ministers will discuss Bosnia and Herzegovina on Monday. The EU has the opportunity to show that it is not a political dwarf in the Balkans, where not only economic, but also political reforms are necessary.
Adil Yigit, a Turkish journalist in Germany advocating the release of imprisoned colleagues, has been ordered to leave the country by the end of January.
In an attempt to bury a three-decade-long dispute with Greece over the country's name, Macedonia's referendum has thrown open as many issues as it sought to overcome.
Interpol's fight against cross-border crime demands cooperation, not politics - be it from Serbia or China.
Sunday's election - in one of the most complex political systems in the world - sees many Bosnia's worry the EU has already given up hope on them. Fears of electoral fraud are unlikely to help.
Aleksandar Vucic, Vladimir Putin, and Hashim Thaci are blackmailing the EU for political and personal gain. With the US going against Germany, prospects of a happy outcome look dim.
Serbia will never recognise Kosovo, Serbia's foreign minister has said, as the Western Balkans heads into a new period of turbulence.
The EU and US have voiced concern on Chinese and Russian influence in the Balkans as the region's countries prepare to move closer to Western bloc.
Window of opportunity for Kosovo-Serbia deal is wide open, but not for long, the Kosovar president's chief of staff writes for EUobserver as talks resume on Friday.
EU institutions have voiced hope of a new breakthrough in Western Balkans enlargement, despite "nerves" about land swaps for ethnic reasons.
The EU commission has endorsed the idea of a Kosovo-Serbia border change, going against Germany and breaking a former taboo.
Sofia may be wearing out its welcome with Western democracies by playing both sides - seeking closer integration in Europe while cosying up to Moscow and Beijing, claiming to work towards hitting EU targets while putting its own interests first.
The state of emergency introduced after the failed coup in 2016 ended on Thursday morning - but a new terror bill will maintain some of its measures.
Last weekend some 175,000 people in the Basque country demanded a 'right to decide'. For some, it means more autonomy from Spain, others independence. "We want to open a second front within the Spanish state," says one Basque politician.
EU ambassador to Turkey said member states may consider reopening accession talks with Ankara if Erdogan put an end to the post-coup state of emergency.
At the first summit in 15 years with Western Balkan leaders, EU chiefs made it clear that enlargement is not at hand - but offered economic incentives to keep the region close to the bloc.
The EU is prioritising motorways and gas pipelines across the potential accession Western Balkan countries, plus hydropower energy projects which threaten one of the world's freshwater biodiversity hotspots.
Unlocking Macedonia talks could be this year's big breakthrough in EU enlargement, but the devil's in the detail of Macedonia's constitution, as Macedonian prime minister Zoran Zaev and Greek PM Alexis Tsipras meet in Sofia.
Turkey has belittled the EU in a week of macho posturing, but strategic relations go deeper than the rhetoric.
Albania and Macedonia should start accession talks, but human rights abuses mean Turkey should stay on hold, EU says in draft report seen by EUobserver.
A country that has only 20 percent of the population of Greece and virtually no military forces cannot reasonably be considered a security concern.
In an annual progress report, European Commission says "independence of justice, law enforcement as well as national anti-corruption authorities need substantial improvement".
While Bulgaria aims to have all 28 EU countries in Sofia in May to give a boost to EU accession of the Western Balkans, some EU countries want to make sure their reservations about Kosovo are noted.
Ahead of an EU summit in Sofia in May, two different viewpoints look at Kosovo's future accession to the EU - one from Pristina and one from Brussels.
Bulgaria's prime minister Boyko Borisov described a meeting at the Black Sea resort of Varna between the presidents of Turkey, the EU council, and the European commission as "charged with great tension." Disputes remain far from resolved.
